A laptop with a worn out hard drive will run very slowly. Upgrading to an SSD will drastically increase performance in most cases.
We work on many mid-range laptops that take 5-10 minutes to start up, and 1-2 minutes to open a program. By installing an SSD, we can reduce these times to 20-30 seconds.
We can also install Windows on the new drive, and clone the old drive; thus retaining all files and programs.
Here's how they work...
A hard drive retrieves digital data using rotating magnetic platters. A sharp bit of metal called an actuator arm writes tiny 0's and 1's, which it can later go back to read and retrieve data. For example, an upper case "A" is stored as "10000001". The platter is divided into billions of sections. The arm will magnetize a section to write a 1, or demagnetize a section to write a 0.
A solid state drive uses flash memory. Millions of transistors open and close gates to trap electron flow. Electrons are charged (0) or not charged (1), and are stored in grids. Then, lots of complex and clever electrical processes (that we don't understand) happen, and voila, storage.
Key differences:
> An SSD has no moving parts, which means it can read and write (store and retrieve) data a lot quicker than a HDD - about twice as fast.
> An HDD uses about 3x as much battery power than an SSD.
> A HDD can generally store more data. A big HDD will store 4 terabytes, whilst a big SSD will store 512GB.
> An SSD is more reliable, because the magnetic disc in a HDD can be damaged by drops or dust.
Recent Chromebook sales have just been announced, and have actually decreased for the first time.
Not surprising, as it's hard to even find one to buy at the moment.
We think this is likely due to the global shortage of computer parts. It makes sense for manufacturers to focus their limited resources on their high-end (Windows) laptops, as they make a higher profit margin on these devices compared to budget (Chromebook) laptops.
Why the parts shortage?
Covid has of course had a huge impact all the way down the supply chain. Increased manufacturing and shipping costs have also pushed the price of parts up.
Demand for high-end devices has increased due to the growth in eSports and streaming.
Demand for computers in general have increased because more workers and students need laptops for remote working and learning.
Cryptocurrency mining is largely responsible for the shortage of GPUs (graphic cards), with miners purchasing multiple units to create Bitcoin, Ethereum and other currencies. Around 25% of GPUs sold are used in crypto mining.
The shortage of complex computing components is affecting many other industries, such as the automotive industry. New high-end cars use extremely complex PCBs; for climate control, braking assistance, self-driving, lighting etc.
The short supply and increasing prices of phones, tablets, computers and other technology is set to continue for the foreseeable future 😓
Thanks for reading!
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